Vaccines were invented more than 200 years ago as a preventive tool to avoid most communicable childhood diseases like Chicken Pox, Measles📷
,Polio etc however with time there use expanded for flu, whooping cough like common illnesses as -well . For a long time Vaccines were considered harmless and a best invention for humanity too.

Mandatory Vaccine Practices:

Developed countries made vaccines mandatory for their citizens, a long list of vaccines are given to infants and many boosters later in their growing years. Initially this policy was applauded as a good preventive healthcare method to avoid outbreaks and epidemics,despite the modification in their types incidents of vaccine injuries and deaths are more frequent now than ever before, Now it is very evident that vaccines are “Not harmless” they are proven lethal in many cases worldwide they ruined lives there is so much debate and controversy going on about Vaccines that soon it will be hard for any conscientious government to keep them mandatory any more.

📷

Just few of the links for an ongoing debate about the risks involved with Vaccinations.

World have become into a shrinking global village, we get affected by every policy not only in our immediate environment, in our global sphere too, sometime by choice and sometime due to the

worldwide health regulations we vaccinate our children .

Expats “Time Travel” between developed world and home countries where laws and policies are decades apart from each other, many families who had their kids Vaccinated in developing countries and as a consequence faced a loss of child or disability for rest of their lives, are a good source of feedback for parents and healthcare providers in Pakistan to pay attention and not blindly follow immunisation schedules for their kids here in Pakistan.

Group 1: Pakistanis living abroad All expats follow laws in their countries of residences as it is mandatory to get their kids vaccinated for school,so they don't have much choice except to vaccinate.

Group 2: Living In Pakistan (Voluntarily)Many educated, well traveled Pakistani voluntarily vaccinate their kids as to them it seems like a preventive measure as “all developed world have mandatory vaccine laws , so there must be something right about them” .

Group 3:Focus for vaccine campaigns, Remote, rural, underprivileged

Third and most vulnerable population are our remote and urban underprivileged kids who are most affected by compulsory state backed campaigns like #Polio, #Measles or Rotavirus vaccines ,

There are few ongoing concerns about Pakistan Vaccine program as we are witnessing more incidents of reactions .

Quality control & Affordability : Pakistan receive OPV Polio vaccine as a cheaper affordable version for mass consumption secondly during storage, dispatch, temperature control can affect efficacy of these vaccines.

Hygiene Issue: OPV vaccines used for mass Polio immunisation can become a source of transmission of virus due to open toilet and overall lack of hygiene practices in refugee camps, rural and remote areas

Poverty and lack of Information: Basic mother and child-care is not very vigilant part of healthcare,only a severe vaccine reaction or a death will get noticed, less obvious delays and disabilities will be considered to be as “by birth” these kids can suffer disability for rest of their lives without even realising what caused it, definitely there is no possibility of any compensation or lawsuit to pharma for Pakistanis .

A Remarkable Story of Waqas Ahmed and Pace2Life:

Waqas chairman Pace 2 Life foundation, have a great story for his struggles; however ,he says he faced many hurdles during his youth when he tried to get education in formal schools, despite his full mental capacity and willingness, rejection for his CP condition made him more committed to his vision of helping people with disability !

Waqas himself never felt disabled, due to his very own positive thinking and a very supportive friends and family especially his maternal grandfather Late Mr Hifz- ur -Rehman who was an educationist never gave up on him and provided him education !

About Waqas Ahmed:

Waqas Ahmed is not an ordinary young man, He was born healthy but later showed signs of #Cerebral Palsy . Thirty years ago awareness about #CP was even worst, as he was living in a village things got more delayed . Growing up Waqas never received proper diagnosis or intervention for speech, vocational or physio therapy, he even did not receive any diagnosis for #CP or Ataxia. He is an exception, and a born leader. He turned his setbacks into stepping stones for his cause,but he wants things to get easier for people with disabilities all over #Pakistan. He started his work with his friends from Government College Lahore and founded Pace 2 Life welfare foundation.

About Pace 2 Life :

Waqas is a young celebrity from Lahore to Balakot ( his beautiful ancestral town) and around Government College Lahore, his Alma-mater. He has been to many TV shows, and has been interviewed many times , met few important government personalities and amazed them with his personality. He is an exceptional young man, who fought disability with his cool and positive attitude. Now from last eight years he is successfully running a true non- for profit organisation Pace 2 Life .org as a Chairman. He is inspiring people with his leadership and focus, He is a very progressive mind , needs meaningful encouragement to continue his cause of helping those who can't ask for help.

Waqas Ahmed and his friends via P2L are doing some great work, all their efforts are volunteer based, and powered by sheer passion and commitment of young students of GC and around it. Most their fundraising is done by these volunteer students and no foreign funding is involved.

WCPD2017 Exploring Accessible Pakistan Our World CP Day Awareness Walk at Greater Iqbal Park Lahore: We at #StepUp4Pakistan this #WorldCPDay2017 challenged our team to #ExploreAccessiblePakistan which included a tour with #SightseeingBusLahore and a #Walk @GreaterIqblPark with our #volunteers, #partners and #CPfamilies. It was an important step to measure #real extent of #accessibility #Disability #Inclusion #awareness #CerebralPalsy in #publicSpaces in #pakistan . Pace2Life Welfare Foundation . Thank You #volunteers, #partners and #CPfamilies for taking part in this important day.

A free Technology can be an only Ray of Hope for many with CP/disability

WhenWe at Step-Up Pakistan decided to spread awareness about CP in Pakistan ,Time to time We are going to share Few of our very heart touching stories during our voluntary CP registry in Pakistan.

We saw a need to set up a database, it was a huge task and now it seems even bigger than before, but a one little advertisement in a Sunday NEWS paper brought so much response from allover Pakistan that it made our commitment to this cause more stronger.

It is rural or city, educated or uneducated desperation and the helplessness of families with CP or ASD like disabilities is not much different, ...We asked a few basic facts and reached to surprising common scenarios in these cases ;

Most kids were born in hospitals or hospital like clinics (instead of an expected at home traditional birth),even in smaller towns.

Most of the kids faced oxygen deficiency at birth, or cried late.

Most delayed development was noticed by families within first year of birth.

Most parents repeatedly consulted doctors, even travelled from their towns to big cities.

Most families were not given enough information about the condition or the need of intervention and therapy was emphasised.

None of the families were receiving any social welfare income like Social Security/ Khidmat card, despite their disability.

Most parents can not give their kids required nutritional supplement, therapy,diapers and struggle for medicine , however they feel ashamed and have too much pride to ask or complain about not getting stipend etc.

Only parents with more educated back grounds understand their child's condition, however lack of awareness , guidance and system holds them back or make them to think about migration, to developed countries.

Families which are privileged and educated enough to get information still struggle and usually get disappointed in getting rehabilitative and sincere medical guidance especially if they are in remote towns.

A simple word like CP is not given to them. These parents are ignored and mislead ,to a level of criminal negligence.

NOTE: It is not about cure and treatment , frustration is due to negligence of medical doctors at the time of birth, or later not intervening when delay happens, irony of the health care situation is cold and criminal, despite a net work of big specialised children hospitals under government, with supposedly free treatment parents have to spend huge amount of money on doctors visits, to specialists and children hospitals, they are not briefed about the condition, need for therapy, or rehabilitative services no suggestions to followup were made, prescriptions are written in English with technical terms which only a medical professional can understand.

When a father of 6 years old boy

with delayed development and an un-diagnosed disability is told his story of struggle in sheer frustration , in this case this poor father was fooled for 5 years , from expensive tests to over the counter tonics were to fix their child who was developmentally delayed since his infancy

When a father of a 12 years old girl asks for guidance ,

She cant talk, sit or walk, Her life is limited to a bed, no formal assessment is done, she never had any therapy yet, apparently she understands every thing but never given chance to get education,or speech assessment..... Unfortunately this family lives in a small town of #Sindh which is not much ready for rehabilitative services yet.

After Cochlear Implant, there is a lot of curiosity and hope for families with hearing impaired children, considering that each and every case is different and unique,only an experienced and qualified physician can make the final recommendations for your child, however it is important to do your own research and homework sort of thing before you sign up for any big investment financially or physically for your kid.

Alam Audiology Clinic was established under the supervision of Dr. Afzaal Alam the leading Audiologist/Audiological Physician of the country who is a graduate of the famous King Edward Medical College, Lahore and had his postgraduate qualification M.Sc. Audiological Medicine from the University of Manchester England.

Dr. Afzaal Alam has wide spread experience in assessment and offering treatment facilities to children and adults having hearing and speech disorders. All patients are examined with the latest equipment and if required they are fitted with latest invisible digital hearing aids. Patients having serious problems of tinnitus (ringing noises in the ears) are offered specialized treatment to get rid of this annoying problem.

The cochlear implantation is a revolutionary treatment for deaf patients. The children who do not get benefit with super power hearing aids or not develop speech are the most favourable candidates for cochlear implant operations. Now for last many years big number of children are attending normal schools after successful surgery of cochlear implants by Dr. Afzaal Alam and his team Services:

The Alam Audiology Center utilises the most up to date equipment, to offer the most comprehensive audiology and hearing aids services in the area: